NHL 12 Demo Available Now, Post Your Impressions Here (360, PS3)

[mazinkaiser]

The only reason why it's easier to enter your own zone this year is because your own cpu teammates no longer get in your way.

It's also too easy to shoot from an angle up close then get a garbage goal off the rebound. Pucks are bouncing off the goalie's pads too far imho.

[plaidchuck]

Thanks for the vids and impressions everyone. Though I haven't played the demo (ps3 just got the YLOD), from what I've seen this definitely won't be a purchase until after December. IMO they are completely 360ing and completely catering to the casual gamers or those who aren't very familiar with hockey.

The fact that they add mode after mode every year and can't be bothered with "meat and potatoes" fixes/addons like adjustable season length, more built in strategies, better AI/goalies is just getting old.

Specifically, these are the things that stick out to me from the videos:

- The D is still too passive, and the human player can go coast-to-coast with little trouble.

- While the players skating and speed seem to have been tweaked, the CPU still skips around like little gnats/waterbugs, very unrealistic.

- IMO the hitting engine is going no where. It seems to be nothing more than a "random hit generator". That was okay for NHL 11, but I was expecting much more this year. Whether sliders and attributes will affect this remains to be seen.

- Goalies still do not react properly to rebounds.

[Splitter77]

i really wish ea would put in a slider that would immediate blow the whistle when a goalie covers the puck or makes a glove save.

I mean like save. whistle. right away.

Not only would it stop myself and the CPU from playing the puck with a goalie and give up a goal. But it would also be more realistic as well.

[Splitter77]

like the sound during replays.
Reminds me of the nhl hitz pro replays.

[Bosborne]

ive been looking for a good forum site to join, so hopefully this site is

cons:
cpu players can pin you forever, but your only able to pin them for a couple of seconds and then it seems like they push off the boards and can skate away from you

when you tie the centre up in a faceoff your team doesnt move to get the puck,

the hitting after the whistle looks awful, you nudge a guy and you fall over sometimes or you do some like 1 footed almost fall over animation,

i know its the demo but it be nice to have a coach task all the time, and not sure if this happens or not but my task was to "get shots on net to even the shots out" but i feel if my scoring chance was better the bar should fill up better, i would take backhands from the blue line and it would count towards the task, i know the task was shots and not scoring chances but if i was a coach and i saw backhands from the blueline i wouldnt consider that a job well done, and also it said go out there and "make something happen", i got a assist off a one timer goal and it filled the bar like half....? that seems to be making something happen should of been full,

and i know its the demo and stuff, but it would of been cool to play 3-7 games of bap (even if it was all 3rd periods) that way we had a chance to earn our icetime for the coach, 1 game i played i got off the ice at maybe around 10 minutes left, and never got back on....

pros:

i havent been able to score five hole yet, but ive noticed that goalies arent in the butterfly the moment you release your shot, it takes them a few split seconds to get down,

being a playmaker ( which is what i do) is actually do-able this year without doing the same play over and over, going to be alot of fun setting my friends up espically when they can do those shovel goals ive been seeing

im a bit iffy on losing speed when deking, i understand why they did it and ill probaly enjoy it watching kids try it online and slowing down all the time, but offline id like to not lose speed, espically as st.louis or stamkos.

didnt really play with sound, girlfriend was over and fell asleep while i played the demo lol, so ill try that tonight,

i also noticed that your bap was 76 overall, not sure if thats your bap starting overall or if the bap they made you play as was amped up abit,

[JezFranco]

Quote: Originally Posted by gopher_guy

Not necessarily a "turbo" button, but I think they call it the "hustle button" While you're skating with the left stick, you push it in (as if it were a button), to make your player "hustle". He skates slightly faster with the left stick held in.

No, no, nooo...

Don't hold it in. You only click it...
Click once for small effect, twice for second gear and three times for full effect racing engine.
And as soon as you let go of teh stick, your guy is back to "normal".


It's quite subtle though, far from something like a turbo boost, but really does the difference in the proper situations.

[Therion7]

Pros:

-I liked being able to quickly pause the game and hit a trigger to see where my shots were getting placed on net*
-The slight shadows cast by the net in-game.
-Sound during replay.
-Goalies looked livelier, covering the crease a little quicker, hugging the post etc.
-Teammates seemed a bit more adept at finding space, making a nuisance in front of the crease and scored a couple of nice deflections.
-Less dekeing.
-I think I like the new skating anims. Occasionally, it takes on an otherworldly quality, but overall it seems a bit more fluid.
-Audio sounds a bit more like a real hockey game. It's less meatier but definitely more authentic.
-Occasionaly when you try to block a shot, the skater will go down to one knee rather than a full dive. Looked cool.

Cons.
*When I rattled a scoring snapshot off the post and in for a goal, the mark on the net tracker wasn't where it should have been. It appeared near the middle of the net graphic rather than the side.
-Absolutely hated the cut to the crowd when scoring a goal. It's just a reminder of how outdated these guys look. Yes, EA are limited by poly counts and framerate but spare us the closeups on them.
-Replays looked choppy on 360.
-I'm tired of Bill Clement. Nothing personal against the guy but enough is enough.
-Wrist shots seemed a bit nerfed in comparison to AI. Goalie looked unbeatable despite decent placement, but mine was scored on by one. Should be fixed by a slider change hopefully but the thing I liked about 11 over 10 was clean goals without tinkering.
- Occasionally, my dump puck looked much more like a saucer pass such was the lack of height.
-Presentation has not received an overhaul. It's slightly less scratchier, that's about it. As soon as I saw the no. 2 goalie leaning back on the bench with his arms outstretched, I sighed. I bet the three stars anims will be the same.
- Curve shot works.
- Goals I gave up were rebound, short-stuff crap mostly. Stick your glove over the puck, Luongo!
-Beady Eye? Custom soundtracks for the win here.

I'll be getting the game. Was there was enough in the demo alone to warrant a purchase? Being honest, as an offline guy...no.

I'm signing up for another year because of the promise of a better sim engine and authenticity-wise, there are a lot of new jerseys this year, some new European arenas have been added, EA have "sort of" fixed some glaring presentation issues around center ice and last but not least, I want the Winnipeg Jets in my virtual NHL. I'm pretty anal about that kind of stuff.

I'm a little bit down on the 360 demo as a whole but I'll give it a shot on the PS3 as that is my preferred NHL platform. The gameplay was promising enough and I'm confident it will be much better once that outrageous speed is scaled back and I can tweak my shot accuracy and power up one notch.

[FBeaule04]

Played more games last night and have to say that overall, I like the game more than at any time in NHL 11, especially playing locked as the goalie.

There's a bit of disappointment on the presentation side I have to say. What's the point of showing the the crowd after a goal if it's only to show 2-3 idiots going forward, backward, forward with their upper body? After that, you see the goalie skating up-close and then boom, back to replay.

Just giving a 5 guys together congratulating each other after a goal would be just perfect, you don't need to push it up to the moon to get a celebrations that's just fine. Even Blade of Steel on the Nintendo had figure it out with one guy pumping fist in the middle with the other 4 guys tapping the ice with their stick.

On a real positive note, I have to say that the AI D is finally playing almost the way it should when you play locked as the G. No more funny pinning and skating backward until getting pressure. I don't know if it's the case, but seems like Johnny Boychuk has the "pinching type" trait since he's pretty agressive on forwards leaving the zone. Chara is a monster while Kaberle was my most painful D to watch in front of the net.

Also seems like the CPU is shooting more. On 5 minutes period, I had an average of 7 shots. CPU is passing the puck well in the offensive zone. Playing the Sedin as a goalie wasn't easy at all, while Burrows net presence was a pain in the a..!

So far so good. I guess I will have the exact state of the game when we see online play with experts exploiting all weakness of the AI and showing us how bad the game can be when those experts are playing it.